Paracelsvs of the [brace] chymical transmutation, genealogy and generation [brace] of metals & minerals.: Also, of the urim and thummim of the Jews. With an appendix, of the vertues and use of an excellent water made by Dr. Trigge. The second part of the mumial treatise. Whereunto is added, philosophical and chymical experiments of that famous philosopher Raymvnd Lvlly; containing, the right and due composition of both elixirs. The admirable and perfect way of making the great stone of the philosophers, as it was truely taught in Paris, and sometimes practised in England, by the said Raymund Lully, in the time of King Edw. 3. / Translated into English by R. Turner philomathēs.

CHAP. VII. Teacheth thee understand Philosophy, as well moral as natural.

MY Son, I have given thee to understand in this Book, and declared all the Philoso∣phy, as well to the red as to the white, so right and simple as possibly I may: for if I could have left to thee any briefer, I would not: for if that I should, thou couldst never have understood it: and therefore I have thought it good to shew it thee in plain Words and Reasons, to declare the same, to make thee perfectly to understand to make this work, that thou shouldst impute no fault to me, if that thou shouldst not come to the right knowledge of this Science; but the fault should be in thy self, and in no man else: for I have written it in right and plain Words and Reasons: but take heed that thou be not as many men be, that do think themselves Masters of all Sciences, when that they never saw the Door wherein the Science was learned: but I would have thee use thy self to reading and stu∣dying of this Book, and print all these Reasons in thy heart, and then thou maist go to work with

a good and glad courage, and God will bless thy proceeding, if thou wilt serve him and pray to him, as it is thy duty to do; and also thou must have a diligent care to keep God's Command∣ments: for as I have often said, with bodily pains taking, and diligent labour, both of thy body and minde, thou shalt bring this Stone to a perfect end: for the Philosophers have hidden this Science, and have written it very darkly, and have coloured it over with many parables & dark sentences, that it is almost impossible to come to the understanding of them, without great instructions of others, Masters of this Science, or else through the great gift of God. Therefore I have written this Book, that thou maist learn the Words and Reasons that I do leave after me, to the end, that thou shalt not fall into any error, but to come to the right end of this Science.

My Son, thou shalt understand, that there be many Books (written by the Philosophers) re∣maining after their deaths; of the which they have written the Truth, but in a very dark sense; here in one word, there in another: the which have brought divers men unto great errors, thinking they did understand the meaning very well, when they were furthest from it. Therefore, my beloved Son, through the great love I have to thee, I have thought it good to open this Sci∣ence unto thee, that thou mayst take heed of the dark sayings of the Philosophers, & that thou do exercise thy self in this Book: for if thou do ob∣serve these my precepts, you shall not come to

any error. But I desire thee upon the salvation of thy Soul, that thou do not forget the poor; and in any case to look well to thy self, that thou do not disclose the secrets of this Science to any covetous worldly man; for if thou do, it will turn to thy hurt: for I have declared to thee, as I trust to be saved, upon my Salvation, the thing that my eyes have seen, and my hands have wrought, and my fingers have pulled forth:

and I have written this Book with my own hand, and set to my name, as I did lie on my death in the yeer 1432. May 7th.

Johannes Strangunere.

To draw the Spirits out of the ponderous Body or Earth by Distillation.

MAke a great many plates of new Lead of the quantity of Groats, as thin as a peny; and hang them on a thred, or small Wyre, and fill a Body of Glass full of them, and fasten the Thred above the mouth of the Vessel: set there∣on a Head, and lute it fast and surely, and put thereto a Receptory, and put it in a Furnace with as easie a heat, that you may alwayes suffer your hand under the bottom thereof, and water shall distil every day from it, fait and cleer as Rose∣water: and at the last, the said Plates will wax soft,

as they were mire, and fall down to the bot∣tom: and then take the Glass, set it in Balneo or Fimo Equino, until the mire be dissolved into black Pitch Liquor: then put it into your Philo∣sophers Vessel, and mix it, and continue it in easie fire, that it may by Circulation become a dry earth as black as a Raven, which afterwards shall wax as white as Snow; the which is the white Elixir; the which you shall take from the Feces that lie there-under: for as Philosophers say, Totum quod subtile est ascendit sursum in vase, quod spissum manet in fundo.

Then put the white in a Fixatory luted up, and continue it with more Fire or heat, till it be first gray, and after that citrine as a yellow Flower; and finally, purple-red, the which is the great Elixir that fixeth all Amalgems into Medicine, which altereth all Bodies into Sol and Luna.

In the Name of God, Amen. Upon Saturn, Philosopher of Holland.

UNderstand, That out of Lead comes the Stone called Lapis Philosophorum: and therefore, when he is throughly made, he doth projection as well in a mans body as without, of all diseases that come to man, as upon Me∣tals; and in many vegetable Books, is no greater secret then this is: for we finde not in

Gold a like perfection as we finde in Lead: for Lead is in his inner part Sol; and therefore do all Philosophers agree: for he lacketh nothing else, but that his superfluity be taken away from him, and that is his uncleanness: therefore make him clean, and turn his inward part out, and that is his crudeness; and then is he Sol: for vulgar Sol cannot be so lightly as Lead; for Lead will quick∣ly be dissolved and congealed, and he suffers his Mercury quickly to be drawn from him; & that Mercury which is drawn from him, if it be well clarified and sublimed, as the use is to sublime Mercury; I tell you, That that Mercury is as good as the Mercury drawn from the Sun in all manner of works, and it is better in our work then the Mercury of Sol. Also, if you should take Mer∣cury out of Sol, you should be constrained to o∣pen the body of Sol for the space of one whole yeer, before the said Mercury of a body could be drawn or come out of Le••d: you may draw out this Mercury in fourteen dayes, and it is as good as the other: and if you should come to make a work of Sol, alwayes you must be two yeers about it, to do it well; but of Lead you may perfect it in thirty or two and thirty weeks at the most, and then be fully ended; the one is as good as the other, and Lead costs little or nothing, and is a shorter work, and is less la∣bor, and of one goodness, and is truth: therefore print this in thy heart, and serve God. The same Lead is called of the Philosophers Sol, whereof they had the name until this day, and have kept it secret: for if the thing were known, many

would work it, and the thing would be com∣mon: for the work is short, and easie, and little of value; and therefore was it kept secret, that the name might be known, lest it might have come to the hands of wicked men, and so much harm might have come thereby, and this holy Science which God hath given to those that love and serve him, should to wicked persons be a means of greater wickedness. As concerning the Lead of Sol and Luna, they have set three Glasses, and all is Lead, but there is no need to joyne any strange thing, but that onely which cometh from him; neither is there any man so poor, but that he may be able to compass this work: for you make of the Salt of Lead with little labour Luna, and with a little longer time Sol, and then they may proceed to make the Philosophers Lead. And this is altogether concluded in Lead, as much as is necessary for us; for in him is the perfect Mer∣cury, and in him are all the colours in the world, which shall shew it self openly; for in him is the true blackness, whiteness and redness: he is ponderous, and in him is the perfect red and white bodies: look and take example, of all im∣perfect things the eye of man cannot abide or bear, how little soever, though smaller then a mote, yet it will trouble a mans eye terribly: but if you take Lead clean scraped, and made the bigness of a Bean, and put it in your eye, it will neither pain you, or harm you at all; and that is, because its uttermost is not perfect like Sol or other pretious Stones, that come out of Paradise, running in the stream: and in like manner Sol,

that in him is, you may well perceive by the si∣militude and many other more, That Lead is our Philosophers Mercury, our Laton: for out of it is drawn in short time, our Mercury, and our Philo∣sophers Mercury, that is, our golden Mercury, with little labor, little cunning, and little charge. And therefore I charge you, and all of you, that know his name, to keep his name secret: for if men knew it, much mischief and trouble would be done. And therefore you shall know our Lead by its hidden name, and you shall know that the water wherein our Lead shall be washed vinegar. This is the Philosophers Stone whereof all the Philosophers have written many dark Books, but there are divers and many works in the Mineral Lead.